He obtained his bachelor of arts degree from Brandon College in 1927. He taught in a business college for a short period. In 1929 the Canadian Poultry Sales Ltd., was a newly formed company to market eggs and poultry from the four western Canadian provincial egg and poultry co-operatives. Lloyd was appointed secretary-treasurer of the company, a position he held for 16 years.

In 1945 as the war was ending he decided to launch into his own business, so he bought the creamery at Kelliher. The Kelliher plant was primarily a butter and egg operation but Lloyd added poultry meats. It expanded rapidly in the meat area. In 1956 he built a modern poultry eviscerating plant in Wynyard.

In the early years the marketing of turkeys was largely confined to the Christmas season. Broiler chicken was non-existent. Lloyd Crawford is given credit for developing year-round production and marketing of turkeys and broiler chickens in Saskatchewan. He was also the first in Saskatchewan to develop further processed poultry products, such as cut up chicken and turkey rolls. This expanded greatly the demand for turkey and chicken broilers and improved the returns for producers on Saskatchewan farms. The demand for product soon exceeded the supply available from farmers so he bought a CPR roundhouse and converted it into a three-storey brooding building. It would brood 35,000 turkey poults at a time which he sold to farmers to finish, or it could accommodate 50,000 broiler chickens. Plant sales grew rapidly, passing the 16 million pound mark in 1976.

Lloyd Crawford contributed time and effort to the Saskatchewan Turkey Marketing Board, the Saskatchewan Broiler Chicken Marketing Board, the Saskatchewan Poultry Council and Western Canada Produce Association. Locally, he served as mayor, first of Kelliher and later of Wynyard.